Only when setting out does he learn that Dogon Icce, his home town, has been devastated by flooding.

Banda is shot and killed and Ahmad decides that this might be the best time to go and visit his family. However, this time the police react in force and start shooting indiscriminately. The old caretaker tries to resist and he is brutally slain, with Ahmad assisting in the slaying and justifying his behaviour by saying that the caretaker should have got out of the way and let the boys burn the building down. Things take a turn for the worse, when the boys attack a Big Party office. However, Banda seems to be getting ill and is spitting up blood. He is happy to stay with Banda and the gang, smoking weed (which they call wee-wee). He does not know how and does not really care, not least because his father never asked after him and, apparently, did not make the payment that he was meant to make for Ahmad’s schooling. Meanwhile, he learns that his father had died.

Things will be better if the Small Party wins Ahmad says but they won’t win. But they go further, intimidating Big Party voters and officials, destroying cars and damaging buildings. With this money the boys in the gang put up elections posters for the Small Party and tear down the ones for the Big Party. Banda is given a considerable sum of money. Bayan Layi heavily favours the Small Party but the country as a whole supports the Big Party.Ī considerable part of this novel is how Nigeria is in a mess and we see this almost at once as it is clear that elections are bought and sold and that violence, threats and bribery are key parts of the election process.

At the start of the novel, it is election season with the Big Party versus the Small Party. On finishing, he joins a local gang of boys, led by Banda, whom he very much reveres. He seems to think he and the others boys were treated fairly badly, regularly beaten and made to do unpaid labour. He was there six years but seems to have had little or no contact with his family during that time. He was meant to go to the local one, like his older brothers, but the school was full so he was sent to one in Bayan Layi. When young he was sent away to Koranic school. The hero/narrator of our story was named Dantala (which means Born on Tuesday) but is known throughout this book as Ahmad, except by his immediate family. Home » Nigeria » Elnathan John » Born on a Tuesday Elnathan John: Born on a Tuesday

Born on a Tuesday by Elnathan John